BANKSIA, More than a Museum The House for for History

BANKSIA

More than a museum

BANKSIA

The House for History

By Lauren Virgo

In 1970, the state of South Carolina was celebrating its tricentennial anniversary and the citizens of Aiken County came together to commemorate the occasion. As a result of this significant occasion, the idea surfaced that Aiken County needed a museum to collect and commemorate its history. Thus, the Aiken County Historical Museum was established on February 12, 1970 and its first home was the old Aiken County Jail.

Just over ten years later, the Aiken County Courthouse needed to expand its structure and thus the jail was on the demolition list. This was a fortuitous event for the Museum because it caused us to look for a new home, literally. After searching for a new site, the Museum relocated to the oldest portion of the former Winter Colony home called Banksia.

Here is a fascinating fact, Banksia is actually two homes in one. The oldest portion of the home was built around 1861 by Charleston cotton merchant Adam Gibson. Gibson and his family along with their enslaved house staff lived at the site during the Civil War (1861-1865). After the Gibsons, the Townsend family and then the Harrington family lived in the home. In 1931, Richard F. Howe purchased the home from the Harringtons. He picked the home off of its foundations, placed it on top of his new three-car garage, and then added 14,000 sq.ft. to the Harrington home. This new combined home was named Banksia by Mr. Howe. Today, you can still see where the 1861 home and the 1931 home merge by looking at the exterior differences - the clapboard siding indicates the older Harrington home and the brick exterior denotes the Howe addition.

Overleaf: Banksia, North Entrance. Left: Main staircase.Photos by Lauren Virgo. Above: Overhead shot of Banksia. Photo courtsey of Aiken Historical Museum.

After the Howe family sold the home in 1951, Banksia became a boarding house for Savannah River Site employees, a campus for Southern Methodist College, the first site of the University of South Carolina-Aiken, a new location for the Aiken County Public Library, and finally the home of the Aiken County Historical Museum.

The Museum officially moved into the Harrington portion of Banksia in 1984. After years of building exhibits, collecting artifacts, putting on events, creating a gift store, and growing a corps of museum volunteers, the Museum was ready to expand beyond the Harrington portion of the building. In 1991, the Aiken County Public Library moved out of the Howe portion of the building and relocated to the old Aiken Institute. This enabled the Museum to assume the entirety of Banksia by 1992.

Today, the museum encompasses all 17,500 sq.ft. of the Banksia building. We have exhibits that illustrate the history of Aiken County from the American Indian era to modern day. Some of the most popular exhibits are Public Safety with its 1943 Chevrolet fire truck, the 1950s drug store and soda fountain from the displaced town of Dunbarton, and the Winter Colony exhibit that features the story of the Hope Diamond’s life in Aiken.

You can learn more about Banksia and the Aiken County Historical Museum by reading “Moments in Time,” a book published by the Friends of the ACHM in commemoration of the Museum’s 50th anniversary in 2020. The book is available at the Museum or online at www.achmfriends.org.

The Aiken County Historical Museum is free and open to the public Tuesday-Saturday from 10 am to 5 pm and Sunday from 2 pm to 5 pm. We have a lovely gift store, expansive exhibits, and historic structures on the ground. Check us out at aikencountymuseum.org and on our social media platforms. 

Becoming Banksia

Banksia has been a home, a boarding house, two colleges, a library, and now a museum.

Adam Ewing Gibson, 1860-1869 William Hutson Townsend, 1869-1871 Harriet Hay Townsend, 1871-1894 Charles Carroll Harrington, 1894-1931 Richard Flint Howe, 1931-1943 (Howe added 14,000 sq. ft. to the home) William Deering Howe, 1943-1948 Elizabeth Shevlin Howe, 1948-1951 Boarding House, various owners, 1951-1957 Southern Methodist College, 1957-1960 University of South Carolina-Aiken, 1961-1972 Aiken County Public Library, 1974-1990 Aiken County Historical Museum, 1984-present

Top left: Fox head door knocker at Banksia. Top right: The serpentine wall that surrounds Banksia. Bottom: One of the many architecural friezes that decorate the home-turned-museum. Top: An upstairs room displays a wardrobe and garments of the sort used and worn by the Howe granddaughters, Cynthia and Priscilla. The floral wallpaper seen behind the wardrobe was discovered during renovations in 2005. It is believed to be the original wallpaper from the Howe addition in 1931. Photo by C.H. Elliot

A hand-turned pottery piece by David Drake, an enslaved potter who was literate and wrote poetry on his pieces, ca. 1830s-1850s. This pot has his mark, LM, which were the initials of his owner, Lewis Miles. ACHM Collection This metallic lace and blue velvet party dress from the Flapperera dress was owned by a Winter Colonist. Donated by Julia B. Leisenring/ACHM Collection

Comedienne Sarah Ophelia Colley first performed as her alter-ego Minnie Pearl at an Aiken venue in 1939. Her famous straw hat with fake flowers and dangling price tag was purchased in Aiken at Surasky’s Women’s Store. As a result of her many performances at the Grand Ole Opry, the hat became a signature look for her character. Donated by Don Rhodes/ACHM Collection

Teacher’s pay document for Alice Mays who worked at Gardner’s Academy in Hamburg, 1877. Signed by Prince R. Rivers, one of the founders of Aiken County. ACHM Collection

Built circa 1890, the China Springs schoolhouse was originally located in the Good Springs school district about 5 miles north of Aiken. In 1975 it was moved to the campus of a vocational high school, where the students began to restore the building as a Bicentennial project. After the celebration, the schoolhouse was moved to the Museum’s original location by the old jail and later, to Banksia.

The Ergle Log Cabin was built in 1808 by German immigrant Frederich Ergle, using trees cut from the property, and housed two generations of Ergle family members. In 1935, in celebration of the Aiken Centennial, the cabin was dismantled and moved to Richland Avenue and Newberry Street and served as the home of the Aiken Chamber of Commerce until 1956. In 1985, Aiken’s Sesquicentennial Committee chose as it’s project the restoration and relocation of the cabin to be placed on the Museum grounds.